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iMac RAM & Drobo question for photo intensive work
- Thread starter OrangeCuse44
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How are you guys with Drobos actually backing up your files then?
What would happen if your Drobo got dropped/was stolen/in a fire etc.?
It's not a proper backup unless it's a separate copy in a different location...
What would happen if your Drobo got dropped/was stolen/in a fire etc.?
It's not a proper backup unless it's a separate copy in a different location...
Well, I back my Drobo up to a WD Share Space. Only 4TB but I only send movies and videos and music from iTunes. My photos, and vids, and files are on the Drobo but they are backed up to either my TimeCapsule or an external drive. In a fire I can grab the Drobo, or the WD or my 1TB drive with the photos on it. Extreme but poop happens.
What about online back
I don't use it right now, but for the fire or earthquake issue, what about CrashPlan? I think they still have an unlimited online backup plan available.
The key is to understand and accept the key reasons for the backup.
local backups are the fastest, and are ideal when worried about product disk failures, but have issues, like the mentioned fire or earthquake or some other issue that affects the location of the primary production and local backup.
Also, if doing phased backups on a spread out schedule, you can protect against malware to a small extent as well. if you have your primary device taken down via a virus and the backup hasn't been infected yet, then you could reformat the entire production disk and still get back up and running relatively quickly. If the virus spreads because whether in use or not, an active disk can get damaged, then this option has screwed you unless your timed backups are mounted only when the backups occur, thus mitigating risk to some extent.
geo-spatially dispersed backups are ideal under most circumstances, but if you go through a lot of data every month, you always run the risk of hitting your internet cap. Many people nowadays have options for internet access that don't entail a cap, but depending on where you live, a capped internet plan may be the only one available, so off-site backups can be problematic for heavy users.
Another option which is ridiculously painful to be diligent about over years and years is having a friend who lives somewhere else with whom you Fedex disks back and forth on a regular basis. This is what I want to do now with a friend of mine who lives in another country, but it's a real pain to be diligent about this, and there's always a risk that disks get damaged during shipping.
At the end of the day, data integrity concerns are just like security concerns. You can keep spending more and more money, but you will never really achieve a perfect plan or series of plans that can cover all situations. Finding the best solution with the disposable income you can continuously put into it over years is about the best you can do.
Good luck.
I don't use it right now, but for the fire or earthquake issue, what about CrashPlan? I think they still have an unlimited online backup plan available.
The key is to understand and accept the key reasons for the backup.
local backups are the fastest, and are ideal when worried about product disk failures, but have issues, like the mentioned fire or earthquake or some other issue that affects the location of the primary production and local backup.
Also, if doing phased backups on a spread out schedule, you can protect against malware to a small extent as well. if you have your primary device taken down via a virus and the backup hasn't been infected yet, then you could reformat the entire production disk and still get back up and running relatively quickly. If the virus spreads because whether in use or not, an active disk can get damaged, then this option has screwed you unless your timed backups are mounted only when the backups occur, thus mitigating risk to some extent.
geo-spatially dispersed backups are ideal under most circumstances, but if you go through a lot of data every month, you always run the risk of hitting your internet cap. Many people nowadays have options for internet access that don't entail a cap, but depending on where you live, a capped internet plan may be the only one available, so off-site backups can be problematic for heavy users.
Another option which is ridiculously painful to be diligent about over years and years is having a friend who lives somewhere else with whom you Fedex disks back and forth on a regular basis. This is what I want to do now with a friend of mine who lives in another country, but it's a real pain to be diligent about this, and there's always a risk that disks get damaged during shipping.
At the end of the day, data integrity concerns are just like security concerns. You can keep spending more and more money, but you will never really achieve a perfect plan or series of plans that can cover all situations. Finding the best solution with the disposable income you can continuously put into it over years is about the best you can do.
Good luck.
You have a point but for most people it would be overkill... I can see the point of putting an HD with files and photos in a safe deposit box but trying to move large amounts of data over the Internet can be quite expense to most people and very impracticable.
Congrats on the new purchase! I think the 27" is the better choice. I'm a screen size/resolution junkie so it's really the only choice.
I'm surprised that the 21" is limited to less RAM than the 27", very strange considering their chipset and CPU should be essentially the same. I assume it goes without saying to not buy RAM from Apple - they are way too expensive. Upgrading the memory on the iMac is very simple and I think a 16GB kit can be had for around $100 from Crucial.
As for the Drobo; I agree that it's best used for archiving past projects. In-work files should be on your internal drive. Firewire is ok, but it's not all that fast compared to SATA. If you need to work from an external drive then Thunderbolt is really your only port option.
I also wouldn't partition your Drobo. I think you can create shares and TM volumes through the drobo software and then limit the folder size that way to keep the TM volume from growing too large.
